A property developer which bought a 15-hectare block of agricultural land in 2004 has given up on its plans to build a tourist park on the site on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
SEQ Investment Group had wanted to build 165 powered and unpowered camping sites, 41 cabins and 23 glamping tents near Yandina in what would have been a $5m project.
However, it has now withdrawn its court appeal against Sunshine Coast Council’s initial rejection of what would have been the Koongalba Rural Retreat Tourist Park.
SEQ director William Hu was philosophical.
“The Sunshine Coast was too hard,” he told the Courier-Mail. “The council owns most of the caravan parks on the Sunshine Coast so you cannot compete with that.”
The company says it now doesn’t have any immediate plans for the agricultural property zoned as sustainable cane lands which it bought for $450,000 17 years ago.
The council rejected the initial application in September 2020, arguing that the development would result in ‘fragmentation’ of good quality agricultural land, and that it was inconsistent with planning codes.
The Yandina and District Community Association had also campaigned against the project. The organisation’s vice-president, Peter Baulch, told the Courier-Mail that members had never considered the location suitable.
“The Council was representing a wider public interest than the Yandina community’s alone, but we were pleased to demonstrate our solidarity with its stand and for the opportunity to express our scepticism about the viability of the site for its ostensible purpose as a tourist park,” he said.
Yandina is a small historic country town located just a kilometre or so off the Bruce Highway. It prides itself on being a grey nomad friendly destination.
SEQ would have been better off to argue that tourism is considered low impact environmental use and would be a better fit industry future re climate change and also increased domestic travel need.
Now there is a 600 block estate and over 60s development going in over the ridge. Go figure!
We hear on the news every day the “bleatings” of Queensland Tourist businesses and Councils saying that they need more tourists due to the lock-downs but when a company wants to invest in brining more customers dollars to their area; NIMBY’s rule.